Pubdate: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 Source: Florida Today (Melbourne, FL) Copyright: 2004 Florida Today Contact: http://www.flatoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/532 Author: Britt Kennerly, Florida Today Note: Does not accept out of town LTEs on drug policy GROUP TARGETS RENTALS Titusville Apartment Task Force Intrigues Other Cities For years, residents of DeLeon Village were more likely to see Titusville police busting a drug dealer than joking with kids at a Christmas party. Now, thanks to a program being eyed with interest by officials in other parts of the county, their lives are changing. Titusville is the first local agency to create an apartment task force teaming eight officers, each responsible for specific problem areas, and the local apartment owners association. Since its start in June, the effort has resulted in several warrants, arrests and trespassing warnings. Some residents of the problem-plagued areas feel a little more safe, and even are starting to get involved in the task force's activities. DeLeon Village resident Cecilia Williams said the program is "one of the greatest things that could've happened here." "Kids can see how community works, what it means," she said as children chatted with task force officers about gifts at a holiday party this week. The Titusville effort -- a cousin to community policing and neighborhood watches -- is the latest in local law officials' attempts to creatively address crime and show residents options for being part of that solution. In Palm Bay, under new Chief Bill Berger's direction, neighborhood police coordinators are in place as they were in the 1990s, responsible for different parts of the city and for developing working relationships in monthly meetings with apartment complex managers, Lt. Dave Crispin said. "They document everything carefully, try to look into records to see if they get repeat calls from specific places, make sure we don't walk away from the problem," Crispin said. The department actively pursues ideas that successfully and legally put community members together with officers to address concerns at certain properties with longstanding problems, he said. "Now that we're aware Titusville has what may be an innovative program," Crispin said, "we will probably do everything we can to take a look at what they're doing successfully, evaluate if it's something we can do effectively here." Improving relations The Titusville task force has eight volunteer officers, each assigned to a specific complex. They're backed up if needed by vice officers. "One of the biggest problems we have is with tenants who move from one apartment complex to the next; stay there, create a problem and move on," said Senior Officer Alexia Ferran, who oversees the force. "A lot of times it's drugs and what comes with that -- traffic, loitering, loud music." On a monthly basis, officers meet with members of the Titusville Apartment Managers Association at the state attorney general's local Neighborhood Initiative office. There, Assistant State Attorney Phil Archer and longtime community advocate Terri Goodwin help develop action plans that could include extra patrols by police or teaching residents how to report drug deals or junked cars. At one complex, all tenants received letters from the police department letting them know about the task force's work. "People who wouldn't want to get involved are coming forward with information . . . one of the results was charges against someone we'd been looking for for a long time," said Cmdr. Mel Williams, one of the task force's creators. Though task force officers earn overtime pay if extra hours are needed, "most can work the duties into their normal tours of duty," Williams said. "We have not incurred a great deal of overtime." Each officer involved volunteered, "not necessarily as an assignment but as a personal commitment," Ferran said. Community approach The Melbourne Police Department offers neighborhood watch programs, with the input of officers, Cmdr. Ron Bell said. "If issues arise, or residents come in and make us aware of a problem, we'll assign that project to a community policing officer to deal with, to help come up with a resolution," he said. The issues they focus on range from loud music and loitering to more serious problems, Bell said. "In one of the complexes, we sat down with management to make sure their rules and policies are spelled out clearly, so people understand them," he said. Whether the property in question involves apartment homes or a single-family home development, crime can blossom in an area left to fester with drug sales, trashed cars and constant loitering, he said. Most law officials, Bell said, are aware of the "Broken Window Theory" of neighborhood decline. It was described in 1982 by sociologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, who related neighborhood decay directly to increased crime. "It takes management and the public to speak up as residents and do something, to help deal with it," Bell said. Stick to the facts While Palm Bay doesn't have a specific group targeting apartments, it does have a neighborhood policing unit and a history of trying to clean up problem areas, said Crispin. In the mid-1990s, a community policing effort brought together neighborhood police coordinators and property managers, who looked at common complaints and strategies for solving them, he said. Those problems ranged from the "floaters" -- those people who move from one complex to another and are evicted or asked to leave -- and drug dealers who worked out of apartments to "deadbeats who trash properties or don't pay," Crispin said. Legal issues that cropped up, however, over providing information that targeted specific individuals, so the department reduced its total involvement to keep within constitutional guidelines. Those concerns were addressed in Titusville, where Goodwin collects information about evictions and non-renewals and shares that with all apartment managers. That's legal, Archer said, "as long as it stays specific and factual, not making allegations," he said. DeLeon Village manager Catherine Dejesus said"a lot has changed" in the six months since the task force's formation. Seeing the kids at the Christmas party with police is "a far cry" from crime that has scarred the northside complex in the past, she said. "We've gotten rid of some drug dealers," Dejesus said. "We want to have a place where the kids feel welcome, where they're safe and where they know we love them." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek